Date: 1746
"Deep to the root / Of vegetation parch'd, the cleaving fields / And slippery lawn an arid hue disclose, / Blast Fancy's bloom, and wither e'en the soul."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1746
Yet the kind source of every gentle art, / And all the soft civility of life: / Raiser of human kind! by Nature cast, / Naked, and helpless, out amid the woods / And wilds, to rude inclement elements; / With various seeds of art deep in the mind / Implanted, and profusely pour'd around / Material...
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1748, 1777
"The passion for philosophy, like that for religion, seems liable to this inconvenience, that, though it aims at the correction of our manners, and extirpation of our vices, it may only serve, by imprudent management, to foster a predominant inclination, and push the mind, with more determined re...
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1748
"But more he search'd the mind, and roused from sleep / Those moral seeds whence we heroic actions reap."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1751, 1777
"Reverse, in any considerable circumstance, the condition of men: Produce extreme abundance or extreme necessity: Implant in the human breast perfect moderation and humanity, or perfect rapaciousness and malice: By rendering justice totally useless, you thereby totally destroy its essence, and su...
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1751, 1777
"The dilemma seems obvious: As justice evidently tends to promote public utility and to support civil society, the sentiment of justice is either derived from our reflecting on that tendency, or like hunger, thirst, and other appetites, resentment, love of life, attachment to offspring, and other...
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1751, 1777
"But no passion, when well represented, can be entirely indifferent to us; because there is none, of which every man has not, within him, at least the seeds and first principles."
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1751, 1777
"On the other hand, were it doubtful, whether there were, implanted in our nature, any general principle of moral blame and approbation, yet when we see, in numberless instances, the influence of humanity, we ought thence to conclude, that it is impossible, but that every thing, which promotes th...
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1751, 1777
"Nor will those reasoners, who so earnestly maintain the predominant selfishness of human kind, be any wise scandalized at hearing of the weak sentiments of virtue, implanted in our nature."
preview | full record— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Date: 1751
"This sentiment, rooted in the mind, is an antidote to all misfortune."
preview | full record— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)